Oceans of garbage prompt war on plastics

PARIS: Faced with images of turtles smothered by plastic bags, beaches carpeted with garbage and islands of trash floating in the oceans, environmentalists say the world is waking up to the need to tackle plastic pollution at the source.

Stories on social media of giant seas of floating waste or a beached whale found in Indonesia with six kilos of plastic in its stomach are bringing plastic pollution into the spotlight.

"There is no question plastic is having a moment," said George Leonard, chief scientist at Ocean Conservancy.

"We are in a moment in time where we are starting to stare the problem in the face, and we´re quite optimistic and hopeful that we can solve it." Leonard and other environmental experts are optimistic the exposure will make the problem of plastics hard to ignore and focus attention on how best to deal with such waste. Eight million tonnes of plastic is dumped into the oceans each year, according to a study in the Science journal. But that is only what comes from the land, said Francois Galgani, researcher with the French institute Ifremer, estimating another two million tonnes could come from ships especially fishing vessels.

As a consequence more than 700 species are impacted, including turtles who confuse plastic bags with the jellyfish they eat, Galgani said. More than 5 billion plastic bags are used every year, and a ban step by step, country by country is underway, the first phase towards a possible general ban. Bags could be followed by bans on plastic straws and cotton swabs.